Ghost
Open-source CMS, newsletter and memberships on your own domain
Ghost is an open-source publishing platform combining a full CMS, newsletter and memberships under your own domain. Ghost(Pro) hosting starts at $15 per month for 1,000 members, with no free tier, and self-hosting is free if you run your own server. It suits publications that want to own everything.
What it costs as your list grows
- 1k subscribers $15/mo
- 10k subscribers $88/mo
Cheapest paid plan covering that list size, on yearly billing.
Pricing verified on 10 August 2026 · Entry last reviewed 10 August 2026
Ghost at a glance
Features
- Yes: Paid subscriptions
- No: Referral program
- Yes: Landing pages
- Yes: Custom domain
- Yes: API
- Yes: A/B testing
Data and compliance
- Yes: EU hosting
- Yes: GDPR DPA
- Yes: List export
What Ghost is
Ghost is the option for people who want to own the whole thing. It is a real CMS (pages, tags, themes, structured content) with a newsletter and a membership system built into the same product, all running on your own domain. Nothing about the finished site says Ghost unless you want it to.
Because it is open source, the exit is always available: you can move from Ghost(Pro) to your own server, or the other way, without asking anyone. Very few platforms in this comparison can say that, and it is worth more than it looks when a provider changes its pricing.
Pricing
There is no free tier on Ghost(Pro), which makes Ghost the only platform here that asks for money before you have a single subscriber. Starter is $15 a month billed yearly for 1,000 members, Publisher is $29.
Starter is also capped at 1,000 members, which is the step that catches people out: cross that line and the cheapest plan becomes Publisher, $88 a month at 10,000 members. The jump is close to six-fold and it arrives without warning.
Self-hosting is free in licence terms and not free in practice. You are taking on server maintenance, security updates, backups and email deliverability. That last one is the part that catches people out, because it means configuring an external mail provider and keeping your sending reputation clean.
What it does well
- A genuine website, not a newsletter archive with a domain pointed at it, so SEO authority accrues entirely to you
- 0% cut of subscription revenue, with payments in your own Stripe account
- Open source, so migrating away is always possible
- EU hosting available on Ghost(Pro), which matters for European publishers
Where it falls short
- No free plan, so there is a cost before there is an audience
- No built-in discovery: growth is entirely your job, unlike Substack or Beehiiv
- Automation is thin, fine for newsletters, weak for funnels and sequences
- Themes and setup take real time, which is the price of the flexibility
Who Ghost is for
A good fit
Publications that want a real website and newsletter on infrastructure they own, with no platform taking a cut.
- Publications whose archive should rank in search, since the SEO authority accrues entirely to your domain
- Anyone with real subscription revenue: Ghost takes 0% and payments run through your own Stripe
- European publishers, since Ghost(Pro) offers EU hosting and self-hosting can sit anywhere
- Teams that want the exit to stay open, since the software is open source and portable
Not a fit
You want built-in audience discovery, deep marketing automation, or you would rather not think about hosting and themes at all.
- You want to be publishing this afternoon with nothing to configure , use Substack instead
- You are counting on the platform to bring your first readers , use Beehiiv instead
- Marketing automation and funnels are central to the business , use Kit instead
Alternatives to Ghost
Substack
Free to publish, 10% of revenue when you charge readers
No paid plan · Free plan: Unlimited subscribersBeehiiv
Creator-first newsletter platform with monetisation built in
$43/mo · Free plan: 2,500 subscribersButtondown
Minimalist markdown newsletter tool with an API and no bloat
$9/mo · Free plan: 100 subscribersGhost FAQ
Is Ghost free?
The software is free and open source, so self-hosting costs only your server. Ghost(Pro), the managed hosting run by the Ghost team, has no free tier and starts at $15 per month billed yearly for 1,000 members.
How much does Ghost(Pro) cost?
At 1,000 members, Starter is $15 per month and Publisher is $29, both billed yearly. Starter caps at 1,000 members, so past that the cheapest option becomes Publisher, which is $88 per month at 10,000 members.
Is self-hosting Ghost worth it?
Only if you are comfortable with a Linux server, updates, backups and email deliverability configuration. A cheap VPS costs less than Ghost(Pro), but the hours you spend maintaining it are rarely cheaper than the difference.
Does Ghost take a cut of paid subscriptions?
No. Ghost takes 0% and payments run through your own Stripe account. That is the main financial argument for Ghost over Substack once you have meaningful subscription revenue.
Ghost or WordPress?
Ghost is a focused publishing tool with newsletters and memberships built in and nothing to configure. WordPress is more flexible and has a bigger plugin ecosystem, but you assemble the newsletter layer yourself and maintain it.
Whichever platform you pick
Niusleters is where you get paid for it: publish your newsletter, set your price and let brands find you.
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